Joseph Kabila

Chronology of Coverage

May. 5, 2014

Sec of State John Kerry publicly urges Democratic Republic of Congo Pres Joseph Kabila to not run for another term in 2016, amid speculation that Kabila might seek to have Constitution amended so that he could run for a third term. MORE

Feb. 8, 2013

Nineteen people accused of being members of Congolese rebel group and planning to overthrow Pres Joseph Kabila of Democratic Republic of Congo are arrested in South Africa; group, which includes American citizen James Kazongo, offered mining rights in Congo to undercover officers in exchange for weapons and training. MORE

Apr. 12, 2012

Pres Joseph Kabila of Congo calls for the arrest of notorious ex-warlord, Bosco Ntaganda, who has been serving in the country’s army despite an international indictment on war crimes charges. MORE

Jan. 13, 2012

Members of the powerful Catholic clergy in the Democratic Republic of Congo call for the election commission to reevaluate 'serious errors' in national elections that gave victory to incumbent Pres Joseph Kabila or, failing that, to resign. MORE

Dec. 13, 2011

Congo's incumbent president Joseph Kabila rejects widespread criticism of presidential election, saying there is no reason to doubt that he was fairly re-elected. MORE

Dec. 11, 2011

Police officers reportedly round up young men in opposition neighborhoods of Congo capital Kinshasa day after incumbent Joseph Kabila is declared winner in disputed presidential election; opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, who has strong hold on streets, has also declared himself president. MORE

Dec. 10, 2011

Incumbent President Joseph Kabila is declared the official winner of the troubled election in the Democratic Republic of Congo, defeating his rival by more than 16 percentage points in an outcome that many here feared would stoke new spasms of political violence; the vote is considered flawed, perhaps severely, by international observers. MORE

Dec. 8, 2011

People in Congo hold their collective breath in anticipation of what will happen after incumbent Pres Joseph Kabila is declared the winner of a still unresolved and contentious election; it is unclear how supporters of his opponent Etienne Tshisekedi will react to the expected announcement of Kabila's victory. MORE

Dec. 3, 2011

News analysis; early returns in the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo raise the faint possibility that Etienne Tshisekedi could defeat incumbent Pres Joseph Kabila, a prospect that worries many Western diplomats. MORE

Nov. 30, 2011

Volatile combination of suspicion, shootings, political clashes and voting breakdowns continue during Congo's second day of nationwide elections; many people are deeply suspicious that incumbent Pres Joseph Kabila is trying to steal the election, and the possibility that opposition ballots may be annulled is stoking fears about widespread bloodshed. MORE

Nov. 29, 2011

Rebel fighters kill poll workers and mob violence mars Congo's national elections, only the second time troubled country has held anything resembling a democratic vote; security forces of President Joseph Kabila have killed many opposition supporters and used repression and bribery to squeeze out votes; opposition leaders are stirring up their camps, saying that the elections have been rigged and calling on people to reject the results; leading challenger Etienne Tshisekedi has already declared himself president. MORE

Nov. 27, 2011

Congo is scheduled to hold democratic presidential and parliamentary elections for only the second time in the country's troubled history; reviled incumbent President Joseph Kabila seems unlikely to win fairly and many are bracing for voting fraud and outbreaks of violence. MORE

Foreign Desk

Joseph Kabila, the 29-year-old political heir whom most Congolese had neither seen nor heard of until this week, was sworn in today as Congo's new president, inheriting a country occupied by a half-dozen foreign armies. Ten days after the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila, the younger Kabila became the fourth president since this Central African nation's independence in 1960. Soldiers from Angola and Zimbabwe, the government's main allies, kept the security at the inauguration today at the Palace of the Nation, as they had at his father's funeral on Tuesday.

August 5, 2014, Tuesday

Amid speculation that President Joseph Kabila might have the Constitution amended so that he could run again, Secretary of State John Kerry asked him “to put the country on a continued path to democracy.”